If you go

What: St. Vrain Valley VEX Robotics Showcase

When: 5:30 to 8 p.m. Thursday

Where: Boulder County Fairgrounds' Exhibit Hall, 9595 Nelson Road, Longmont

Cost: $5 for adults, $3 for children, includes spaghetti dinner from Longmont's Ragazzi Italian Grill

More info: tinyurl.com/hjzel3r

Students at Longmont's Central Elementary School are testing, changing and retesting the robots they've worked on since the start of the school year as they get ready for a state VEX Robotics competition this weekend.

From left: Fifth-graders Fiona Glynn and Willa Conlin use a laptop to program a series of commands for their robot Thursday at Central Elementary School in Longmont. (Matthew Jonas / Staff Photographer)

"We're never really done," fifth-grader Anna Kragerud said as her team worked to make their robot turn. "There's always something to modify."

They must "drive" the robots around an arena using a remote control and program them to move on their own, completing tasks that involve hexagon-shaped balls to earn points. They also earn points in a teamwork challenge that requires them to work with a second team.

"It's really cool," Kragerud said. "You get to program a robot to do what you want it to do. You get to use your imagination to build the robot. It's not already built for you."

Classmate Erik Swanson is in his fourth year building and competing with robots, working mainly as a programmer. His team is first in the state for robot skills this season, with a goal of qualifying for the world competition for the third year.

"This is a growing world of technology," he said. "The better you are at technology, the better of you will be."

To celebrate students' accomplishments and give the community a firsthand look at its robotics program, St. Vrain Valley is hosting its first robotics showcase and fundraiser on Thursday.

About 300 students from 28 schools are expected to attend to demonstrate the problem-solving, collaboration and construction required.

Plans include "build" activity stations with unassembled or partly-built robots so participants can experience building a robot, while "programming" stations provide an opportunity to use computer language. "Drive" stations also will offer completed robots to try.

The fundraiser portion, which includes a silent auction, has a goal of raising $10,000 to pay to send teams to out-of-state national and international competitions and for ongoing support of the program. The event is supported by the Education Foundation for the St. Vrain Valley.

St. Vrain also is hosting a state VEX IQ tournament Saturday at Trail Ridge Middle School. So far, 38 teams are registered, with most of them from St. Vrain.

Altogether, St. Vrain has hosted 12 competitions this year, with six middle school teams expected to compete in the U.S. Open Robotics Championship in April in Iowa. Another six or seven elementary teams are expected to compete in VEX Worlds in April in Kentucky.

Axel Reitzig, robotics and computer science coordinator at St. Vrain Valley's Innovation Center, said about 26 district schools have almost 200 teams involved in competitive robotics, up from five schools competing four years ago.

Two dozen high school students working on robotics at the Innovation Center also serve as mentors, supporting clubs and running tournaments.

"The growth has been huge," Reitzig said.

The district used its four-year, $16.5 million federal "Race to the Top" grant to start robotics programs, he said. Now that the grant is ending, the fundraiser is a way to help sustain programs.

He said the district likes the VEX program because it creates an authentic, real-world engineering experience.

"Students are applying a whole wide range of STEM skills," he said. "There's computer-aided design, programming, collaboration, project management, documentation and presenting to judges."

Middle school students can choose robotics as an elective at many schools. At the elementary level, competitive robotics is often an after-school club.

Cyrus Weinberger, principal at Erie's Red Hawk Elementary, said competitive robotics extends classroom learning for students passionate about computer science and programming.

"Kids can really push themselves," he said.

Red Hawk has six teams, with five qualifying for the state competition.

"The kids really learn a lot about collaboration and teamwork and sportsmanship," Weinberger said. "There's no one solution. It's very engaging. It gets their minds just really ticking and problem-solving."

Westview Middle School teacher Danny Hernandez leads teams at both Central and Westview. Four teams from Westview are heading to nationals, as are two Central teams.

Westview, in its fifth year of VEX robotics, was among the first schools to try the program.

"We've been getting more and more competitive," Hernandez said. "It's kind of like a competitive sport. You have to try out here to make the team."

His students have bins full of metal pieces bolts and other parts to use as they build their bots plus a large arena to practice and test them. Part of the need for the fundraiser, he said, is to help other schools start what can be an expensive program.

"We have schools that can order all the supplies and schools that can't," Hernandez said. "We want kids at other schools to benefit. It's an awesome program."

Westview students said they like that what they learn through robotics is preparing them for future careers in technology or engineering.

Seventh-grader Kaia Wing noted her team spent a lot of time researching different designs before starting to build. They also learned coding basics.

Teammate Sierra Bindseil added that she's become better at working with a group, something that's carried over in other classes. At competitions, she said, there's also a lot of collaboration, with other teams always willing to lend a part or help solve a problem.

Plus, she said, building robots is just really fun.

"You get to create something, and there aren't really any limits," she said.

Amy Bounds: 303-473-1341, boundsa@dailycamera.com or twitter.com/boundsa

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St. Vrain Valley schools to host competitive robotics showcase, fundraiser - Boulder Daily Camera